Best Plasma Screen for £3500

Guest

First of all sorry to the mods if this is a duplicate thread. I searched but could not find any relevant information (unless I'm an incompetant monkey, which I like to think I'm not ).

Anyway, I am looking to buy a Plasma Screen TV for £3800 give or take a couple of hundred. This should (hopefully) include a wall mounting bracket and tuner.

I have heard that models using the older Plasma screen technology have considerably shorter half-lives than compared to the newer technology. Could you please recommend me a model that uses the newer technology?

Standard Member

I am in a very similiar position to you and am spending the same kind of money......but, at the moment i have reached a decision on the Panasonic 5 series. Seeing it working it looks amazing and with the tuner and can be bought from richersounds, techtronics and others for that budget.

The only reason i do not have it yet is because i have been pondering over the pioneer to (also in budget), there are loads of interesting threads in here on the 2 you should check them out....they also appear to be the best 2 on the market at the moment although keep an eye out for the new fujitsu.

I have looked thoroughly into the half life situation and am sure that loads of people with screens will back me up by saying that you should get approx 30000 hours or so before encountering problems. Thats 6 hours a night for very many years, you will no doubt change the thing before its done.

Active Member

Buying plasma screens is a very expensive business and I strongly advise you to demo screens with the closest possible set-up to that which you will be using before parting with your hard earned cash.

There are a number of screens mentioned on this forum which warrant closer inspection and are in the price band you mention...in no particular order;

Panasonic 42PW5B, or Toshiba equivalent
Pioneer 433MXE
Latest Hitachi 42"
Latest Fujitsu 42"
There is also mention that Sony now has a rather nice 42" as well.

They all have their good points and you should think carefully about the connectivity issues, possible high definition in the future, whether you are going to want to watch progressive scan from your DVD, audio noise of display, flicker from the display, PC compatibility and - of course - looks. There may be other criteria you may want to add to this list.

You will find champions of all the above displays on this board but it's you who is going to have to live with it. If I were you I'd have a read through the past 2 to 3 weeks threads and then go and have a demo based on what you find. If you can get to Horsham then NexNix have the PIO, Panny and Hitachi (oh and a somewhat lower priced Samsung) all on display in the same room with both DVD and Sky feeds. They will let you play around for a while to make sure you have made the right choice. If you can't get to NexNix try to find a similar dealer in your locality.

Guest

I am currently looking at Hitachi, Panasonic and Philips (Philips mainly because I can get a free DVD+RW drive which I want to get regardless).

From the prices I have seen Pioneer is too expensive for me (7Oaks are selling it for £4700 w/ TV Tuner). Although Panasonic is the cheapest, it does not include a tuner. I am not sure how much these cost since I was unable to find a price. Maybe some of you may be able to enlighten me on this. Currently I am favouring Philips and Hitachi, however this is purely on recommendation from this board and others. I have not seen a demo yet.

For your information, I have been checking up prices from 7Oaks, Dixons Group, Dabs.com and Jungle/Argos. Unfortunately I can't get to Horsham. If you guys can recommend me any other resellers (High Street or otherwise) please let me know.

Standard Member

The Panny tuner box (TUPTA600B) is £399 from PRC direct, or £433 from Unbeatable, who claim to have stock. PRC haven't answered any of my emails, so I'm not sure about them. Richer Sounds will price match the PRC price, but expect to wait a few weeks for the tuner if you get it from them.

Guest

After having read a few other threads, I think I won't be needing the tuner. I get Cable and the Telewest box connects to the TV via a scart lead. If I get a RGB - component converter I won't need the tuner. I could also get one of those Scart boxes from Argos so that I can connect all other devices to it.